Prime Minister Johnson has asked the Queen to suspend Parliament. While it was an explosive move, confrontation between Johnson and Parliament has always been inevitable. The EU has been betting on the UK parliament to intervene, but the window has narrowed. The risk of a no-deal Brexit is obviously rising, but secondary to the risk of a general election.

This report shows that the US is more exposed to disruptions to bilateral intermediate trade flows than China. In addition, also exporters and consumers in third countries such as the Netherlands feel the pinch from a disruption in supply chains between China and the US.

The recent announcement from the US to further up the ante in the trade dispute with China clearly marks a new escalation in the trade war. If one takes China’s recent response into account, it’s hard to see either side trying to ease tensions at this stage.

The US-China trade war will probably accelerate a shift of foreign production out of China. Our new ‘Where Will They Go index’ shows that Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and India are likely to benefit from this production relocation.

Against the backdrop of limits to monetary policy, we investigate the issues at stake if budgetary policy were to take over the role of stimulus provider. Things have not been made easier by the EP election results, but we do see a few ways out.

BJP’s unexpected sweep of India’s general elections means that Prime Minister Modi has a clear mandate to follow through on its reform agenda. However, we believe his government will struggle to push through more difficult reforms, such as labour market and land reforms, which are much needed to lift the country’s growth above 7%.

The US has raised import tariffs from 10% to 25% on 200bn worth of Chinese goods shipped to US shores and China has vowed to retaliate. In this report, we assess the economic impact of these measures, as well as a scenario where the US-China trade war fully escalates.

The centre-left socialists have won Spain’s national elections, but need to find support of others to govern. This should be doable, yet very tough. The economy should not suffer much in the short run, but the longer term outlook is clouded.